Category: Blog
Select committee inquiry on overview and scrutiny – the Government’s response
Last week, the Government produced its response to the Communities and Local Government Select Committee’s inquiry on overview and scrutiny in local government. The full response can be found here – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-overview-and-scrutiny-government-response-to-select-committee-report This blog post focuses on those areas where Government has responded – the report itself covers some other issues, which we will be looking […]
Scrutiny and council readiness for emergencies – guest blog
Councillor Ketan Sheth, from Brent Council, shares his experience of how scrutiny can support council emergency preparedness. Over the spring and summer of 2017, terrorist incidents in Westminster, Manchester and London Bridge, and then the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower in Kensington, rightly put emergency response at the forefront of minds across the UK; communities, politicians […]
The how and why of government interventions in councils
Ed Hammond, CfGS Director of Research, reflects on the powers central government has to intervene in local authorities and risks that the approach can bring. Here we are again – another Government intervention. Although firm action has yet to be taken to deal with the dire situation that Northamptonshire have found themselves in, the likelihood […]
Why trust in government matters
Elena Konopelko, CfGS Reseach and Policy Coordinator, explains why government should take action on building trust with the public. Edelman has published its annual trust barometer report for 2018, and the results indicate that the overall levels of trust continue to be stable but quite low for most of British institutions. The reported trust levels […]
Local Public Accounts Committees
Why is it needed? What will it deliver? How will it work? The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny believes that current accountability arrangements are not strong enough for the increasingly complex landscape that characterises public service delivery in many localities. CfGS believes that local Public Accounts Committees (PACs) should be created which would help secure […]
Local scrutiny arrangements for children’s services are under the spotlight
Local scrutiny arrangements for children’s services are under the spotlight following the Children and Social Work Act 2017. The Act sets out provisions which will: Replace Local Safeguarding Children Boards with new flexible local safeguarding arrangements led by three safeguarding partners (local authorities, chief officers of police, and clinical commissioning groups), and place a duty on […]
Governing complexity – survey results analysed
Last year we held our national annual scrutiny conference which looked at the governance of complexity. Prior to the conference we ran a short survey to get views from councillors and officers about their practical experiences on managing scrutiny and governance in increasingly complex environment. The responses were illuminating, if not entirely surprising. Over half […]
Combined authority scrutiny (a little over) six months on
It’s now been around eight months since the elections for metro Mayors took place. We at the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny naturally have an interest in how Mayors and Combined Authorities are held to account. CAs all have overview and scrutiny committees. We wanted, as the end of the year approached, to think about […]
What are the sanctions when you cannot get hold of information – or when you can’t get someone to attend a meeting
Increasingly, I am asked by exasperated councillors what the sanctions are when they are met with obstructions as they carry out their work. This can be senior officers dragging their feet when asked to provide information, Cabinet Members or senior officers not turning up to meetings having been requested to do so, Cabinet failing to […]
Devolution scrutiny: eight months on – free event
In March 2017, CfGS convened an event bringing together scrutiny practitioners from around the country to talk about the establishment of scrutiny arrangements for combined authorities. Nearly a year on, a lot has changed. Government’s commitment to the devolution agenda may have wavered, but Mayors have been in place in six areas for a few […]